Week 2:
Minnesota Nice

June 11, 2023

I was born and raised in Iowa, so I’ve heard the term “Iowa nice” a few too many times. Truthfully, I am very proud of where I come from and all the great people who have helped me get where I am now. So, as a professional Iowan, I am officially announcing that “Minnesota Nice” is a real thing too. All of the people I’ve encountered have been incredible! On the Mayo Campus, the entire faculty is always looking to help its patients, residents, and interns (the hospitals are enormous, and I still get disoriented sometimes).

This week has been focused on completing our training for the Mayo Clinic and our specific lab through online modules and training files. The Mayo Clinic modules taught their mission, history, and IRB (which protects human subjects in clinical trials). It was really cool to learn more about the history of the Mayo Clinic and its purpose from its origin. After completing this training and encountering more people on the Mayo Clinic campus, the bar has been set very high for future professional environments. Everyone shares a common emphasis on clinical practice, education, and research. For example, I have been cold-emailing physicians at the Mayo Clinic, and everyone has been really receptive to meeting and sharing information about their specialty.

In my lab, Maia, Harry, and I listened to Tom’s lecture about sleep staging and critical details to look for on sleep charts. Tom has trained sleep technicians for most of his time at the Mayo Clinic, so it’s great to listen to someone who is an expert in this field. After receiving this background information, we started training files. Basically, a patient will have probes that measure voltage in specific locations on a person’s head (EEG channels), next to their eyes (EOG channels, and muscular movement of chin, legs, and/or arms (EMG channels). By looking at the behavior of the voltage channels, we can determine the stage of sleep a person is in N1, N2, N3, or REM sleep.

Our lab is studying REM Sleep Without Atonia (RSWA), which is muscular movement in the REM sleep stage. This week, we are training to “score” the REM sleep stage by going through a patient’s REM sleep and scoring all the muscle movements recorded from the probes. This can be difficult for several reasons. First, we need to determine a baseline of no activity, and we only score voltage that is 4x that amount. Also, the probes on the forearms and shins record a person’s heartbeat, which occurs in all healthy (alive) people, so we don’t want to include that in muscle activity.

Outside of our training, my lab partners and I eat lunch in an outdoor area connected to the Gonda building to enjoy the weather. It has been enjoyable to get to know each other and learn more about their backgrounds that led them to this opportunity in Dr. St. Louis’s lab. Harry plans to become a physician, and Maia enjoys neurobiological research.

After an entire workday, I enjoy going to St. Mary’s campus. By continuing to go to the St. Mary Hospital Chapel, I have met some incredible people, had great conversations, and seen many grandchildren’s prom pictures. Also, there is a park area in the middle of the hospital where I enjoy reading journal articles, studying for the MCAT, and catching up on anything else. Safe to say, I have totally fallen in love with the St. Mary campus.

Another fun addition to this week, I’m dog-sitting Luna and Kaia! Who doesn’t love an extra source of serotonin??